-duxup recounts his cruise to Mexico with the in laws (with photos)
-duxup shows off bits and pieces of his and mrs. duxup’s house (with photos)

2007 and Beyond

Lots of folks doing their 2007 wrap ups here.  Breaking with Husi tradition mine will not be sad and due to my poor memory it will be inaccurate and short:

-Continued gainful employment despite yet another acquisition.  Unlike the previous acquisition it seems like a good acquisition as the current employer fired all the previous executives and actually turns a profit.  Yes, computers can do that.

-Mrs. duxup left bad work situation to return to the theater for some contract work.  Mr. duxup would like to see more stable employment.

-Mr. and Mrs. duxup celebrated their one year wedding anniversary.

-Mr. and Mrs. duxup obtained a new home and moved in.

-Mr. and Mrs. duxup went on a cruise to Mexico with Mrs. duxup’s family.

Things from 2007 I would like to continue in 2008:

-Gainful employment for Mr. duxup with the same company.

-Another anniversary.

Things from 2007 I would like to improve or change in 2008:

-A more rewarding job for Mrs. duxup.

-Maybe another trip (Italy, Mrs. duxup hasn’t been there), but this one for Mr. and Mrs. duxup.  Not likely but I can dream.

-One of these days I’d like to get my bum in gear and go back to school.

-Depending on circumstances maybe begin the process of productive spawning with Mrs. duxup.

Children

Mrs. duxup has been talking a lot a bout children recently.  She would prefer we multiply now.  I am wary.  I’m not so much concerned with the timing, but our financial future.  Right now I’m the only one bringing down regular income.  Mrs. duxup’s current employment is on a temp basis with a month here, a month off there.  It is spotty work and while I can cover many expenses and we have savings I don’t want to be living check to check in terms of how often we save.

Additionally I know Mrs. duxup would love to be a stay at home mom.  Heck I’d like to be a stay at home dad but even before we were married I noted that almost certainly wouldn’t be an option for us.  Yes I know some people make it work, I think that is awesome.  I just don’t see it happening here at this point (I’m open to change). 

As a child I grew up half the time with a two parent household and the second half of the time a one parent household.  With two we didn’t have much money, with one we had even less and I grew up aware of it much of the time.  Not unhappy and selling our hair or anything, but aware of the situation.

The wife grew up in a two parent household.  Her father being very successful they didn’t need to concern themselves with such things.  She grew up in similar surroundings, no big cars and fancy vacations or anything like that.  Heck today she hardly spends much.  Yet IMO the lack of experience with money means she doesn’t see things the same way.  Darned parents never gave her an allowance.

Mrs. duxup doesn’t worry about money.  She doesn’t do anything naughty with it, but also doesn’t give it much thought as far as I can tell.  I on the other hand worry all the time.

Mrs. duxup job situation has always been sort of transient.  She’s a hard worker, but also doesn’t think she’s qualified for squat and to a certain extent that seems to keep her from actually going out and getting a better job.  She also puts a premium on if she’ll enjoy the job she’s considering.  This is understandable to me, right up until the part that as far as I can tell she’s never been really happy with any job she’s had. 

Additionally these job’s benefits have in general been ####.  It’s not just employment I’m thinking of, it is gainful employment where she’s appreciated and rewarded that I want to see.  Not perfect but something, humane.  Having only had jobs that don’t do much of either of those things she doesn’t quite see the potential of a new job as rosy as I do.

To me money is security.  It is part of our future.  A future where if I need to she or I can stay home with the kids a bit longer, maybe go on another vacation later, or do all those things we’d like to do.  I’d just like to see her in a better position where when we start having children so we can do some of those things and not have to worry about larger issues (non kid related) or BIG issues if I were to loose my job or something.   With a gaggle of kids around I do not think finding or making those opportunities happen will be any easier at that point.

Doors and Locks

Being in a new house with new house noises the wife is nervous at times.  She’d like to have the door locks changed and if it makes her feel better then that’s cool.  I’m arranging for a locksmith to just rekey the locks.  Not sure what they rekey them for (like what pattern or if they provide the key) as we don’t actually have anything in mind.  Well if the key was just flat with “duxup” in holes that would be cool ;)

I’d also like to add that I do not like our front door, fortunately I don’t have to use it much.  It has one of these configurations (just an example not that exact one).  I hate having to push down with my thumb on that stupid plate to open the door.  It is not easy and turning a knob is way easier.  What idiot came up with that design?

Also we need to have a new door put in between the master bedroom and master bath as there is no door and the noise and light from someone being in that bathroom easily wakes up the sleeping person, even me.  After getting my first estimate (we’re buying the supplies) I realized that this is not going to be cheap.  Grrr.

Furniture

I hate furniture shopping.

Things we’d like to get:

• A new bedroom set.  Our current set is some old headboard from gord knows where and a few small pieces from my bedroom set when I was a kid.  Better yet that stuff is still at the old house so that prospective buyers can visit with furniture in it.
• Furniture for the family room.  We have a couch and chairs in our living room in the old house but for now our family room has just this cheap loveseat in it.  It works but our other couch and chairs … I hate them.
• Some misc furniture for the formal dining/living space aka. Mrs. duxup’s craft room.  Mostly a nice looking tall desk Mrs. duxup can do her crafts on and a larger desk she can put her PC on.

1.    Despite the fact that kitchens have come from the Stone Age to nice full extension drawers, bedroom furniture for the most part has not moved an INCH past the Bronze Age.  WTF is with expensive dressers and all this stuff and then I look and the hardware is some crappy aluminum track, with a plastic guide and they all work like ####!  The alternative is just wood scratching along wood and for some reason I don’t mind that because hey, at least it seems like less of a stupid attempt.  Some of these darned things are hard to open . . . EMPTY!

2.    Furniture is expensive.

3.    Consumer Reports is right when they say large furniture chains are reluctant to do any kind of haggling or such.  I was thinking of throwing down $6000 at one store for a bunch of stuff and they didn’t even want to do free delivery.  Unfortunately, all we have in my area are large furniture chains.

Our current furniture status is shopping around furiously, but a ways from spending any dough.

Oddly enough when at some store that was like Pier 1 but not Pier 1 (World Market I think it was called) we found furniture that was relatively a good deal that we liked.  Quality not super high but frankly it looked and felt about as high as anything we saw at the expensive stores and was notably less expensive.  Probably not going to pull the trigger but at least it seemed like there might be some hope out there of finding something reasonable where we don’t expect.

Quick Thought: Politics

I’m not a Ron Paul fan AT ALL.  I don’t think his just don’t do anything and it will be alright solutions are very good solutions.  I wouldn’t vote for the guy.

Having said that… I will say that I appreciate his recognition that maybe just maybe the American foreign policy had something to do with some of the crappy things going on in the world, even terrorism directed at us, and that should make us rethink some things.   I don’t think just backing away like Paul seems to advise is a solution but still I appreciate part of what he’s saying.

Along the lines of the same thought that means when I hear Rudy (I was mayor when some people died in my city) G. take him to task for implying that our enemies might be something other than just a cartoon “bad guy” I want to cry.

Again notice to Ron Paul haters:  I wouldn’t vote for the guy, I’m not fond of him at all.  I just happen to agree with part of his argument that I don’t hear anyone else touching.  Please don’t hurt me, Ron will go away soon and I’ll be happy too.

Kill it with Lasers!

Here’s a great idea.  We sent a space craft to Mercury to (amongst other things) make hit and run recon images and fire lasers at the entire surface.  I know the lasers are just for mapping the surface but is that how the ALIENS are going to see it?  #$%@

Microsoft Home Server

This is darned tempting.  Recently I’ve been thinking of a NAS solution for the wife and I rather than just a couple External USB HDDs that I have now.  There are some kick ass features such as the remote desktop gateway sort of service and such.  Also the hardware for that HP box is keen.  I know it is new, it is MS, it probably will kill us all if that stupid satellite at Mercury doesn’t, but still it darned tempting…